News Release

Sikh Temple Shooting: “Christian Terror”

MARK JUERGENSMEYER, juergens at global.ucsb.edu, www.global.ucsb.edu/faculty/juergensmeyer.html, www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-juergensmeyer
Juergensmeyer is director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, professor of sociology, and affiliate professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His books include “Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence.” He is also particularly knowledgeable about Sikhism and has lived in India. He said today: “First off, this would have to be classified as a case of Christian terrorism — if you’re going to talk about Muslim terror and so on. Wade Michael Page being a veteran fits into a pattern of war mentality of a crusader. This can be especially pronounced among veterans, who have been trained to kill, but also occurs with those who see themselves as soldiers, like the Norwegian Anders Breivik who claimed he was saving northern Europe from the scourge of multiculturalism allowing for domination by non-whites.”

JAISAL NOOR, jaisalnoor at gmail.com, twitter.com/jaisalnoor
Noor is a reporter who has covered the Sikh community and bias crimes against it. He said today: “I think by calling it a senseless act, you are doing a disservice to the victims because this event happened on the morning of the Sikh day of worship, on Sunday. This was clearly planned. The attacker knew the time when the Sikh community would be gathering. This was a planned and targeted attack. Also, by calling it a senseless act, we’re not acknowledging the deep problem we have in this country of white supremacy, of racial violence against all people of color. That’s a dialogue we need to have in this country, that this goes on all the time — no matter if you’re Sikh, Muslim, Arab, African American, or Latino. This is a constant problem.”

Noor contributes to Democracy Now!, Free Speech Radio News and the Real News. He was on Democracy Now! this morning.